Marketing PR: A new promotional tool

Pharma PR has been playing a minor role in company’s promotion mix. Now, marketing managers need to double as PR persons and usher in new type of promotional tool, says Bhaskar Chakravorti

In a recent news article in a leading national daily about the launch of Taspin a combination of Ticlopidine and Aspirin by Karnataka Antibiotics and Pharmaceuticals Ltd, the clinical benefits were highlighted in bullet points in a box which appeared like a visual aid. That’s what we call public relations or is it marketing public relations (MPR)?

The basic functions of public relations (PR) are:

1) Press relations: Presenting news and information about the organization in the most positive light.

2) Product publicity: Sponso-ring efforts to publicize specific product e.g. a) Cipla a decade ago had sponsored Dr Pramod Niphadkar’s (Mumbai) initiative to organize rock climbing and subsequently climbing 100 stairs of a skyscraper for asthmatics

b) Dr Reddy’s sponsored a Healthy Living Carnival at Hyderabad on September 29th the ‘World Heart Day’

c) Panjon sponsoring a product briefing meeting in Bangkok for a few district and town based leading doctors

d) Sponsorship of CMEs and conferences.

3) Corporate communication: Promoting understanding of the organization through internal and external communication e.g

a)House journals (Contact of Ipca) are not only distributed to the employees but to their suppliers/customers as well

b)Job advertisements and movement announcements in the press (like the Executive Diary in The Economic Times) are PR exercises

c)The quarterly financial reports released in the press is a medium of brand exposure as done recently by Sun Pharma and Wockhardt.

4) Lobbying: Dealing with DCGI and FDAs, legislators and government officials where liaisoning and PR literally overlap.

Image building

Marketing managers and PR specialists do not talk the same language. Marketing managers tend to be more bottomline-oriented whereas PR practitioners see their job as preparing and disseminating communication. Pharma PR has always been treated as a minor element in the promotion mix. Thus pharma marketing managers need to double as PR persons and usher in the era of ‘marketing public relations’ (MPR).

MPR will directly support corporate or product promotion and image making:

1) Assisting in the launch of new products e.g. Taspin of KAPL, Asomex (S-Amlodipine) press advertisement of Emcure.

2) Assist in repositioning a mature product e.g. Rx to OTC switch of Gelusil-MPS (print advts; TV commercials and billboards) Benadryl cough formula (TV commercials, weather report updates on FM radio)

3) Building interest in product category - ‘‘Papa, will you please stop smoking for me’’ and ‘‘I’ve protected my children against hepatitis-A. Have you?’’ both from GSK.

4) Building interest in specific target groups: Alzheimer’s disease and menopause in Readers Digest/Femina by Ogilvy Healthcare for Novartis and Alembic respectively.

5) Defending products that have encountered public problem: Dr Reddy’s and Panacea Biotech should now come forward and support the DCGI in establishing the fact that there is no adequate data to establish a causal relationship of nimesulide and hepatotoxicity.

6) Building corporate image in a way that reflects favourably on its products: Dr Y K Hamied, chairman & MD of Cipla made international news when he offered anti-AIDS cocktail at an affordable price and was perceived as a true Indian leader.This must have had a positive impact on the product performance of the company.

Corporate promotion

It is noteworthy that some smaller Indian companies have taken the MPR route: A leading financial daily featured a headline ‘Morepen close to buying seven OTC brands of Novartis.’ The headline in the same paper on May 19, ‘02 flashed ‘Morepen set to acquire drug chain Lifespring.’ Later, on June 25,’02 it was ‘Dr Morepen acquires cold brand Lemolate from Yash. We look forward to more penning of MPR from Morepen.

Pfizer India today is focussing on its corporate image as they have brands bigger than the company. Thus we get to see Pfizer on TV with Piyush Pandey’s old men chat communicating their association with hypertension and depression. Internationally Pfizer is rated highest for its MPR for their select media and message. You cannot miss their Celebrex interactive in yahoo.com. One of their best MPR is the Pfizer forum in The Economist, which is an advertising series sponsored in the interest of encouraging public discussion on policy questions and featuring a wide variety of views from leading policy experts.

MPR contribution

Philip Kotler, one of the world’s leading authorities in marketing, has been a consultant to Merck (his only pharma client). But when it came to stating a successful case study of MPR in his latest 11th Edition of Marketing Management he quotes: Viagra, Pfizer’s most successful prescription drug launch in history used PR to inform the customers about the drug before the launch, but as the small blue pill grew into a genuine pop-culture phenomenon, Viagra got vast quantities of PR gratis. The pill got unofficial endorsements from celebrities like Hugh Hefner and newspaper columnists all over the country who ‘test-drove the drug’ to phenomenal success.

MPR’s contribution to the bottom line is difficult to measure because it is used with other promotional tools. The easiest measure of MPR effectiveness is the number of exposures carried by the media. A better measure is the change in product awareness, comprehension, or attitude resulting from the MPR campaign.

The other benefits of a well planned MPR are:

• Projects an aura of credibility and professionalism
• Supplements and supports the product promotion of the company by medical reps
• Attracts talent and helps in recruiting high caliber personnel in the organization
• Instills enthusiasm and sense of pride among existing employees particularly medical reps who are the PROs of the company
• Projects the company’s image as an ethical and responsible organization.

The writer is general manager (products), Brown & Burk Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Bangalore

(The article expresses views of the author only)